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Almost all people who suffer from a heart attack have at least one risk factor beforehand that exceeds healthy levels, new research has found.
In a study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers found that more than 99 per cent of people who suffered from a heart attack either had high levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar or a history of tobacco use.
The research also showed that the vast majority of heart attack victims had two or more of these risk factors, with high blood pressure being the most common.
Professor Philip Greenland, the study’s senior author, said: “The goal now is to work harder on finding ways to control these modifiable risk factors rather than to get off track in pursuing other factors that are not easily treatable and not causal.
“We think the study shows very convincingly that exposure to one or more nonoptimal risk factors before these cardiovascular outcomes is nearly 100 percent.”
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High blood pressure is the most common risk factor among heart attack victims
Researchers from Northwestern Medicine and Yonsei University analysed the health records of more than 9 million people in South Korea and 7,000 people in the US, spanning up to two decades.
The study used the American Heart Association’s criteria for ideal cardiovascular health, which defines the four major risk factors to be past or present tobacco use, blood pressure above or equal to 120/80 mmHg, cholesterol levels higher or equal to 200 mg, and a fasting glucose level higher or equal to 100 mg/dL.
A fasting glucose level refers to the amount of sugar or glucose that is in your blood after an overnight fast. It is often used to diagnose diabetes.
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Heart attacks are one of the leading causes of death in the UK
Researchers examined the regular health screening data of the participants. They found that 99 per cent of people who developed coronary heart disease had at least one risk factor prior to having a heart attack. More than 93 per cent had two or more risk factors.
The most common risk factor among the participants was high blood pressure, which affected over 95 per cent of heart attack victims.
There are around 100,000 people admitted to the hospital each year due to a heart attack. A recent report from the British Heart Foundation found that coronary heart disease, which occurs when the arteries become narrowed, is the leading cause of premature death, responsible for killing around 66,000 people each year.